The present invention relates to an IC-mounted card substrate and an IC-mounted card substrate having an image-receiving layer, which are suitably applied in a contact-type or noncontact-type card or sheet, and which electronically store personal information requiring security with respect to prevention of forgery or alteration, an IC-mounted personal-data certification card utilizing the substrate.
As a personal-data certification card such as an identification card (ID card) and a credit card, a magnetic card which records data by means of a conventional magnetic recording method has been commonly utilized. However, a magnetic card had problems of insufficient anti-tampering with data due to the ease of rewriting of the data, of insufficient protection of data due to environmental susceptibility of the magnetic record and of insufficient memory capacity. Therefore, an IC card including an IC-tip has become popular in recent years.
However, the quality of information recorded on a conventional pre-formed IC card did not meet the requirements. For example, the surface of an IC-mounted card substrate caused unevenness or ununiformity between an IC-mounted portion and the other portion, due to the differences in factors such as hardness, thermal conductivity, thermal shrinkage after heat press, and resulted in unsuitable as a recording surface. Specifically, an IC-mounted cards had problems of causing unevenness of the surface more easily compared to a card without an IC.
JP-A 7-88974 (JP-A refers to an unexamined and published Japanese Patent Application) discloses providing an image-receiving layer and a cushion layer on an IC card substrate, however, durability of the card was not sufficient because of possible penetration of chemicals or water at the card edges due to inadequate chemical resistance of the cushion layer.
Further, a method, in which a non-cushion actinic ray-cured resin is used in an image-receiving layer of an IC-card in order to reduce thermal shrinkage occurring during printing of information recording, is disclosed in JP-A 2000-298714, however, this method had a problem in that in practical use, curling of the card resulted due to photo-curing shrinkage when the resin was photo-cured. Further, a porous film was used to provide a cushioning property, however, the cushioning property was a problem which caused insufficient printing quality due to the use of a thermal transfer recording medium. The chemical resistance of a material used for a cushion layer also resulted in insufficient durability of the card.
In order to diminish unevenness caused on the card surface, IC-card preparation methods such as, 1) utilizing an electronic part having a predetermined thickness for use in the card and 2) specifying the thickness of an adhesive, were tried in JP-A 2000-211278, however, they were not enough to diminish the unevenness of the surface.
The object of the invention is to provide an IC-mounted card substrate, which prevents deformation of a card, improves printing properties by use of means such as a thermal transfer recording medium, and exhibits improved durability of the card due to more resistance to penetration chemicals and water through the card""s edges and an IC-mounted personal-data certification card utilizing the card substrate.
The object described above of the invention is achieved by the following means.
[Structure 1]
An IC-mounted card substrate comprising a first sheet member having at least a first support, a second sheet member having at least a second support and an electronic part fixing layer having therein an IC-module and provided between the first sheet member and the second sheet member, wherein the second sheet member has a cushion layer comprising an actinic ray-cured resin on the second support, and a displacement value of needle penetration of the cushion layer obtained by a thermo-mechanical analysis (TMA) apparatus is not more than 30% at temperature of 100xc2x0 C. and not less than 30% at a temperature of 150xc2x0 C. based on the thickness of the cushion layer.
[Structure 2]
The IC-mounted card substrate of Structure 1, wherein the second sheet member further comprises an image-receiving layer on the cushion layer.
[Structure 3]
The IC-mounted card substrate of Structure 1, wherein the cushion layer is cushioning image-receiving layer.
[Structure 4]
The IC-mounted card substrate of Structure 1, wherein adhesive layers are provided between the first sheet member and the electronic part fixing layer and between the second sheet member and the electronic part fixing layer, respectively.
[Structure 5]
The IC-mounted card substrate of Structure 1, wherein the thickness of each of the first support and the second support is within the range of 30 to 300 xcexcm.
[Structure 6]
The IC-mounted card substrate of Structure 1, wherein the thickness of the cushion layer is within the range of 5 to 50 xcexcm.
[Structure 7]
The IC-mounted card substrate of Structure 1, wherein the cushion layer further comprises a cushioning auxiliary agent containing at least one of a thermoplastic resin, a thermoplastic elastomers, a hot-melt adhesives and a resin having rubber elasticity.
[Structure 8]
The IC-mounted card substrate of Structure 2, wherein the second sheet member further comprises a protective layer on the image-receiving layer, and the protective layer contains at least one of a thermo-curable resin and a photo-curable resin.
[Structure 9]
The IC-mounted card substrate of Structure 3, wherein the second sheet member further comprises a protective layer on the cushioning image-receiving layer, and the protective layer contains at least one of a thermo-curable resin and photo-curable resin.
[Structure 10]
The IC-mounted card substrate of Structure 1, wherein the cushion layer is provided on the outside of the second support.